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Show ! ) ) ) ) ) r" ( r L I.e return trip from Fisher Mesa offers spectacular views to :e west, where the low sun silhouettes the gigantic spires of Castle Tower and the Priest and Nuns against still more distant Porcupine Him. fisher Mesa Boasts Spectacular Viewpoints By F. A. Barnes Some thirteen miles driver from Moab Yal-ey. Yal-ey. the deep and narrow "olorado River gorge ridens abruptly. For the -.et ten miles, the swee-:L-.g expanse of Richardson Richard-son Amphitheater offers ::eaihtaking views in all frections. To the north, the massive mas-sive sandstone cliffs repeat re-peat from the winding river and are cut by rugged sidecanyons. In iv.er directions are the io'ry cliff edge of Por-:jpine Por-:jpine Rim. the isolated spires of lower Castle Valley, the lonely splen-fcrof splen-fcrof Parriott Mesa, the slender fingers of the Tisher Towers and the soaring peaks of the La Ml Mountains. Framing the La Sals irom certain angles are ro high and massive rock-walled peninsulas, Adobe Mesa and Fisher Mesa. To most travelers ilong scenic L'tah 128 iese gigantic and distant ibutments must seem as remote and inaccessible is another world, yet in ict they can be explored !' those with off-road vehicles and a little perseverance. per-severance. Old and seldom used trails penetrate both Adobe Ad-obe and Fisher mesas, but the condition of these trails is such that they should be traveled only with great care. Years of erosion have left many places where an inexperienced inex-perienced driver could get into trouble. But the trip out onto Usher Mesa is well worth the effort and time it takes. If the sweeping scenic beauty of Richardson Richard-son Amphitheater is magnificent mag-nificent when seen from l'tah 12S as it parallels the river, imagine what the same scene is like from the northern tip of Usher Mesa, almost 3000 feet above the floor of the river valley! To reach Fisher Mesa for a day of exploring, drive upriver on Utah 128, then turn up the Castle Valley road. Near the upper end of the valley, the La Sal Mountain Loop Road turns right, but the main road continues. Stay on the main road. Within another three miles the pavement ends and several sev-eral miles of steepgraded dirt road begin. In about three more miles, tall pines will begin be-gin to appear, the road will curve to the right around a stock-watering pond and views of upper Fisher Valley will appear below. Back from this poit just a few hundred hund-red yards, an unmarked trail enters the forest in a northerly direction. This trail soon drops onto Fisher Mesa. As the trail angles down a steep slope and reaches the mesa proper, a first viewpoint appears where the trail comes close to the Fisher Valley rim: For the next several miles the trail winds and tw ists through virgin pinion-juniper forestlands. Several side trails invite lateral exploration, but most of these soon become be-come impassible from washouts or fallen trees. The elongated mesa is cut across in several places pla-ces by deep - canyons, where tilted rock strata have promoted water erosion. ero-sion. As the main trail travels the length of the mesa, it must cross these gorges. The manner in which the original trail builders did this affords several excellent viewpoints, view-points, although this is doubtless inadvertent because be-cause those who built such trails were certainly not motivated by any love of scenic beauty. In each case where the trail crosses such a lateral canyon, it first angles down a steep slope toward the Fisher Valley rim, where the canyon is shallow est. Then the trail makes a turn at the rim edge and ascends the far slope of the canyon. It is these rim edges that offer the best views from the trail as it heads for the tip of Fisher Mesa. From such rim viewpoints, view-points, Fisher Valley can be seen in one direction, and in some such canyons the distant escarpments that bound Professor and Castle valleys can be seen to the west. About halfway out onto Fisher Mesa the trail leaves virgin forestland. From there on to the mesa tip. the land appears to have been the site of a terrible battle, with the entire forest leveled. Indeed, In-deed, there was a battle here, between man and nature. Man won. The ages-old beauty of the mesa top was utterly destroyed. de-stroyed. But still, it is worth continuing on the trail because it ultimately leads to mesa-rim viewpoints view-points that are incomparable. incompar-able. After about three more miles of travel, the trail ' '"r"-' -. - .---.liC't .!: " i ". . . V- 'V-f:i'"';V-:'-'---A. W... ' .. . - : : , , : . n . . - , U Tfhe trail that penetrates the wilds of Fisher Mesa ffrs several spectacular glimpses of upper Tisher lley. There, the greens and go ds of cultivated adows stand in sharp contrast to the distant cliffs and the pastel badlands of an immense exPosure of gypsum. About midway along Fisher Mesa, the upper reache of Onion Creek appear, and the lofty spires of th Fisher Towers can be seen. In the distance, th Colorado River is visible, as well as the high cliff that bound it to the north. Still farther away, th' Book Cliffs stretch across the horizon. dwindles to nothing, either destroyed by the chaining operation or perhaps just never completed com-pleted on to the tip of the mesa. But the trail does go w ithin easy hiking distance dis-tance of the ultimate mesa rim, and from this point walking is the best way to sample the spectacular beauty below. One way to seel all that this breathtaking mesa rim has to offer is to walk west from the end of the vehicle trail to the Professor Valley rim. then hike along this rim to the right. Thus, the entire panorama of Richardson Rich-ardson Amphitheater can be seen, and from the farthest tip of the mesa the view is so magnificent magnifi-cent that it becomes difficult dif-ficult to turn away and make the return trip, even though that return trip is highlighted by the scenic splendor of the entire La Sal Mountain range sprawled across half the skyline and spotlighted spot-lighted by the last rays of the setting sun. Yes the view of Richardson Rich-ardson Amphitheater from the river road is outstanding but this beauty is magnified many times when seen from the tip of Fisher Mesa in late afternoon! |